On the 3rd June 1997, Chuck Prophet and his band played the second of two small club dates in London. While just down the road, Jakob Dylan and his Wallflowers cranked out their radio-friendly rock, it was at the Monarch that the real deal was being delivered, as Chuck and his band blew the roof off the tiny upstairs of this pub venue in Chalk Farm.

In an area barely large enough to accommodate the band and their instruments (the walk from the dressing room to the stage being straight through the front half of the audience), they began in a low key mode with an unreleased number, a wry slowburner called 'Waiting for My Gin to Hit Me'. But the pace soon picked up as they worked their way through most of the new album, *Homemade Blood*, as well as a generous selection of songs from Chuck's previous solo albums. As always, these songs that can tear the heart out of your home speaker system had even more of an edge when performed by a band who take every opportunity to capitalise on their apparent ability to read each others' minds. For the most part, all eyes are on Chuck, as it seems no-one's ever quite sure where he's going to duck or dive next, or when he's going to lead them through one more endlessly inventive guitar coda. His telecaster can weep, squeal and roar in a single solo, and, what's more, the whole band has an element of this improvised unpredictability that helps to make their live act so volatile and explosive.

Highlights of the show included a re-arranged version of 'Tune of an Evening', from the first solo album *Brother Aldo*. The song, frenetic in the studio, was slowed down here to a ballad's pace that emphasised the poignancy of the lyric. Other "slow pretty ones" as Chuck calls them, included a much-requested 'Longshot Lullaby' and 'New Year's Day'. Stephanie Finch got her customary solo spot and seemed genuinely taken back by how loudly the crowd cheered at the beginning and end of the song. (Incidentally, there's talk of her working on her own album, which will be something to hope and pray for). Gram and Emmylou, Richard and Linda Thompson are frequent reference points when people talk about the way Chuck and Stephie's voices blend; these comparisons work to an extent, but they undoubtedly have a quality of their own that has evolved over the years, allied to something instinctively 'right' about how their voices fit.

The new LP, possibly Chuck's best and certainly his most diverse yet, was done full justice live, the title track working much better without the treated vocal of the recorded version. 'Inside Track' hit like a freight train, '22 Fillmore' was an insane thrash, and 'Credit' brought the house down to end the show - except the band came back for half a dozen more over two encores.

The last time I saw Chuck was a couple of years ago at a half-empty show in Portsmouth, and he was evidently pretty pissed off about something - possibly the relatively thin audience, or maybe it was just roadweariness. Although it was a fairly perfunctory show, it still kicked spots off a lot of other gigs I've been to. A few years before that, promoting *Balinese Dancer*, he played the basement of a pub in Edinburgh, and from the opening note of Step Right this Way (and what a daring way to start a gig), he had the audience in the palm of his hand. They kept bringing him back for one encore after another until he said they had nothing left to play - before launching into a scorching 'Scarecrow'. This time around, he was in a great mood again, clowning around, bumming cigarettes off the audience, taking requests ("We're gonna play all the hits," he called back at one point. "Both of 'em!") During Credit, he took a moment to tell us all "Oh by the way, I'm having a fucking ball up here" and it showed.

During an encore of 'Look Both Ways' Chuck bust a string on his guitar, and a girl in the audience tried to restring it for him. In the meantime, he took the mike and hammed up the rock star histrionics (hilarious!), ad-libbing about 8 limerick-style verses ('I got a new way to spell Memphis Tennessee, M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E'), shouting at Stephanie to play the riff on the accordion and keeping the whole thing going until he got the guitar back again.

At the start of the gig, I'd overheard some of the audience chatting - it seemed that the audience were pretty much half devoted fans (one couple danced their way through every number, regardless of pace, six inches from the stage), and half Monarch regulars or curious gig-goers. By the end, just as in Edinburgh years ago, everyone was a fan. This year... Chalk Farm. Next year... the world? Probably not, but for those of us who recognise Chuck Prophet as one of the most talented and most overlooked singer/ songwriter/guitarists of his generation, we can keep dreaming, and keep converting new fans. My sister-in-law just bought Homemade Blood. That's one more for the cause...

Stevie Simkin

Thanx Stevie /Henning

EAST BAY EXPRESS DEC 13, 1996 CHUCK PROPHET & HIS CREATURES OF HABIT

The Starry Plough’s double bill last Saturday showcased two of the Bay Area’s top bands in the --rock-folk-R&B-country vein. Oakland’s own Naked Barbies, led by singer Patty Spiglanin, hit a sweetly sad groove, while San Francisco’s Chuck Prophet & His Creatures of Habit added a joyful balance. The two quintets have developed dedicated followings over the past six or seven years. They cover similar mlusical ground, each featuring an accordion amoung the electric gutars and drums, and while their styles are different, both draw from the grand band tradition of Little Feat, the Rolling Stones, the Band, and even Merle Haggard’s Strangers. And both boast leaders who seem able to toss off top-flight songs with emotional depth as easily as they light cigarettes or down mugs of beer.
Cigarettes and beer is what the Starry Plough, the small pub on the Berkeley- Oakland border, is all about. The air on Saturday was saturated with both, and the woozy atmosphere didn’t help the loiud but often irritatingly inadequate sound system. Add an overflow crowd, and it was party time, which only wound down when Prophet unplugged hs guitar sometime near 2:00am.

Prophet and singing partner-keyboardist Stephanie Finch are one of those too- rare teamings, their harmonizing together right up there with other great duos from George Jones and Tammy Wynette to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. The pair began singing i the back rom of the Albion Club, a stone’s throw from their Mission district home. Eventually they expanded to a full band, but it is their relationship as a duo that is at the heart of their music. The Creatures of Habit were in fine form, having just spent eleven days together in the studio making their next record. They knocked off the new songs (“Hungry Town” “Once Removed”), and newly energized versios of older Prophet songs from previous CDs including last year’s Feast of Hearts, which was released only in Europe, where the band tours. Prophet described it as “my album of torch songs for arsonists.” The songs were anchored throughout by bassist Anders Rundblad and drummer Paul Revelli; the guitar interplay between Prophet and Max Butler was as tightly interwoven as Prophet and Finch’s voices. Finch, who has long let the spotlight shine on Prophet while she played keyboards and accordian, picked up an electric guitar to sing “Angel” (a song Prophet wrote for her soe years ago) and the sizzling “I’m Gonna Git Ya” an obscure R&B gem Allen Tousaint wrote for Betty Harris. The band also nailed Prophet’s urgent “Savgannah,” a gritty version of Ike Turner’s “Flockin’ with You.”.........